In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights
Act, TIME Books has released the thought-provoking publication 'Called to Be
Free: How the Civil Rights Movement Created a New Nation.'

Opening with a foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who is currently director of the Hutchins
Center for African and African American Research at Harvard, editor-in-chief at
TheRoot.com and host the PBS series 'The African Americans: Many Rivers to
Cross, 'Called to Be Free' consists of recollections and
essays on how the 1963 march on Washington, but more exclusively, The Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s impromptu yet historical 'I Have A Dream' speech would
become a template for politicians and public speakers to pattern themselves
after, even today.

Testimonies from participants of the 1963 demonstration such
as Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Mahalia Jackson, Julian Bond and Jesse Jackson,
as well as modern-day notables including Colin Powell, Sonia Sanchez, Maya
Angelou, Marco Rubio and Shonda Rimes make up a sizable portion of this examination of a slice of American history.

Highlights include: a powerful essay by Richard Norton
Smith, presidential historian at George Mason University, regarding the reactions
and hesitant participation of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to interact with Dr. King; John Meacham's look back at the 1963 bombing of the 16th
Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four young black girls
– Denise McNair, Carol Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. Meacham
also interviews Birmingham mayor William Bell, who was a teenager at the time
of the bombing, and a cousin to Robertson; and an examination of the death of
Trayvon Martin and the strides – or missteps – that have been made to eradicate
racism over the past 50 years.

There's also a look at some of the fresh, young faces of
civil rights, those who will lead the march into the future...

Of course, no TIME publication would be complete without the trademark,
dynamic photos that chronicle pivotal moments in history.

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